Jimmy Hatlo (1897–1963)

Pogo may have been hipper, Peanuts trendier, Blondie more engagingly familiar, Li'l Abner more cryptic, but back in the days of my youth Jimmy Hatlo's They'll Do It Every Time was my first stop on the comics page. I loved his gentle kidding of humanity's little behavioral foibles, paradoxes, and inconsistencies, it seemed to me to reflect very well what I knew of adult life, and there was a touch of the exotic in that readers sent in their ideas and he printed their farflung locales, complete with street address. Having spent many years and more than a few bob hunting down the original book compilations, I was delighted to see this edition of four of those books, and if I'm a little disappointed that they left some of them out, I will admit that completeness would have made for an even bulkier book. The earlier books are the best, or at least the most diverse; in later years the panel narrowed its focus to largely concern itself with office life. In its youth in the forties, the comic spent a lot more time on equally fertile comic ground such as hospitals, law enforcement, marriage, vacations, and parenting. It must be said that these 'toons are hardly politically correct; there's not a minority to be seen, and the sex roles on offer are anachronistic, perhaps offensive to many. These are still great fun to me, though, and a warm, insightful glimpse into the now much-changed office environment of the mid-twentieth century.… (mehr)